And Is This What Love Is?
by KeiAlways
Summary: Drabbles. Wabizuke vs. Muramasa over the pretty Zanpaku-to spirit Kirineko and that isn't even her true name .
1. Need

"Wabizuke-kun? Please don't act so down in the dumps. It seems everyone around here is saddened in the deepest parts of their souls." The silver-blue-haired cat girl sighed as she leaned over the much taller, but sitting, Wabizuke, pouring water over his emaciated body. He merely sighed in reply, to which she sighed back theatrically and moved on to Ruri'iro Kujaku, who wrapped an arm around her waist and patted her behind.

"Hello, pretty lady. What have you got there?" He grinned as he asked, to which the cat girl, named Kirineko, promptly dumped half of her water bucket over his blue hair. Undiscouraged still, Ruri'iro grinned in the direction of the busty cat-girl. "Love you, Kirineko!" He shouted with a laugh. The object of his affections turned up her nose at him and moved on to their master, the great Muramasa. He was surely the most powerful of them all, and undoubtedly the most pained.

"Muramasa-San?" She asked timidly. "Muramasa-San, I've brought water and a cloth. Would you like me to pour water over you to cool you off, or perhaps clean and heal your wounds?" Muramasa gave a small, sad grin at Kirineko's proposition.

"You can't fix me, Kirineko-Chan. But some water would be nice." She blushed at his calling her 'chan', something he only called her. The rest of them he called merely 'san'. He honored her with his choice of terms. The pretty girl then flushed a deeper color as Muramasa discarded his fancy outfit, leaving his chest bare for her to cleanse.

Kirineko set to work immediately, gently pouring her water over his tired muscles and even rubbing them with her cloth to ease the tension and pain she knew he had. He tried to mask it, but they all knew that Muramasa was sick, ailing in some unknown way. Her face was sad as she worked her hands into his physical pains. She knew she could not reach the emotional ones.

--


	2. Jealousy

**Wabizuke watched, his eyes blank, as Kirineko tried to soothe Muramasa. Only Ruri'iro Kujaku could see the jealousy simmering underneath Wabizuke's forever-sad face.**

"**You got a thing for Kirineko, eh?" The blue-haired narcissist asked casually. The chains on Wabizuke's back rattled in his seemingly harmless way, but Ruri'iro understood. "Yeah, I knew it. Don't worry, I'm not really after her. But…" The flashy zanpaku-to lowered his voice, "Muramasa looks like he might be." A low growl filled the air, emerging from Wabizuke, and the chains rattled with wrathful intent. Ruri-iro put up one of his arms. **

"**Watch it there, buddy. The choice is hers. You know that, Wabizuke." Wabizuke's head bowed down farther. **

"**Yes." He said under his breath. "The choice is in the hands of the beautiful one." Ruri'iro scowled, but said nothing as he watched Kirineko continue to fuss over the deeply-pained Muramasa. **

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	3. Please

_**Later that day, Wabizuke approached the object of his affections. She looked up the second she heard him coming, as though she had been awaiting this. Wabizuke could hear her heart pounding-- was she afraid of him?**_

"_**Uruwashii**_**…" He breathed slowly and softly, not being able to bring himself to say his name, and instead saying 'beautiful'. Kirineko gave a little gasp, and her cheeks colored immensely. She spun around to face him in her cute, clumsy way, almost managing to fall on her face in the effort.**

"**Wabizuke-Kun! I had no idea you could speak at all, and it seems you are a little confused. I am not '**_**uruwashii**_**', **_**wakoudo**_**." She called him 'young man' as she corrected his language. The pretty cat-girl took a deep breath and sighed. "I am **_**bukotsu **_**and **_**fushou.**_** Clumsy and without grace." She stared deep into her bucket of water. "You must be confused **_**omaesan**_**." But her own words betrayed her love for him, and Wabizuke understood very well that **_**omaesan **_**meant 'my dear'. He shook his head vigorously as he advanced upon her and took her gruffly by the shoulders. **

"**You are **_**uruwashii**_** and **_**medetashi**_** in equal measure, Kirineko-chan. Wonderful and beautiful. Kirineko-Chan, you are my--" Wabizuke and Kirineko both snapped their heads to the side at the sound of footsteps running towards them. Muramasa was shouting as he tore Kirineko from Wabizuke's thin arms. **

"**Wabizuke! What were you about to say? Kirineko-Chan is **_**wakete, rouzekimono!"**_** Kirineko opened her mouth to protest Muramasa's claims of herself being above all else and especially calling poor Wabizuke a ruffian, but Muramasa held her tight to his chest, making her gasp. **

"**Muramasa-Sama, please!" She shouted, but he would have none of it. He cursed a few more words to Wabizuke before taking Kirineko away, "safely" in his arms.**


	4. Dangerous

Wabizuke stood, devastated, in the wake of Muramasa's destruction. Wabizuke had been about to confess, in his own words, just what Kirineko Matsumoto meant to him, but Muramasa had had none of it. Slowly, he shuffled away, sadness overwhelming him.

In another room, Muramasa desperately ran his hands over every little centimeter of Kirineko's body, his eyes wide.

"Are you hurt, Kirineko?" He asked calmly, swallowing hard, as he continued to palpate various areas of her stomach, arms, legs and chest. She pushed him away gently, but with the utmost respect.

"I'm perfectly fine, Muramasa-Sama! I really do wish to know why you interrupted Wabizuke and I's… our…our _setogiwa_. He was telling me something… something that was very, very _taishita_, Muramasa-Sama." Muramasa only sighed in reply.

"Crucial moment, Kirineko? Something very 'important'? I doubt it! Wabizuke is _abunai _for you_,_ Kirineko. He is not for you." Muramasa was stern, and Kirineko said no more, though she could not believe in her heart that Wabizuke was dangerous.


	5. Really

In all truth, Wabizuke _was_ anything but _abunai_ to Kirineko. But he couldn't say the same for Muramasa, and neither could anyone else. Eveyone wondered what he was planning to do with her. Afterall, Muramasa was not one for romance as far as they had seen. He must have something in store for Kirineko.

Orihime Inoue and Rin Matsumoto, Kirineko's shinigami, sat on the roof of the 11th squad's building. Rin sighed.

"I have no idea what's up with Kirineko. She wants to be by the sides of all the other swords, even though she loves me to pieces. Especially she wants to ease what ails that evil Muramasa!" Orihime watched the stars for a long time before speaking up.

"I think Muramasa is trying to heal his heart. And I think he might be using Kirineko to do it, in his spare time of course. The rest of this attack is his revenge. But he's being pulled to your Kirineko, and I don't think he knows why. But I do think that his heart is silently calling out to be healed and fixed, and I think that deep, deep down he knows that Kirineko can do that for him." Both were silent.

"You think so?" Rin asked.

"Yes." Orihime replied after a while. "I really do think that."


	6. Brother

**It was hours later, in the afternoon, that Wabizuke found Kirineko again. She was sneaking about, gathering water and healing others, as though she were avoiding him. He "ambushed" her, in a manner of speaking, after she finished rubbing Katen Kyokotsu's back, bowed to the stronger woman and walked away. He came from behind, blitz attack style, and grabbed her shoulders. She started to scream from surprise, an easily startled thing always, but Wabizuke immediately covered her mouth with his hand.**

"_**Uruwashii! **_**" He whispered urgently. "It is only me. **_**Wakoudo**_**. Wabizuke." Kirineko relaxed to the point of almost looking angry that he snuck up on her, but her heart continued to pound loudly as he held her close to himself. Still, she was scared of him?**

"_**Wakoudo!**_**" She scolded. "Don't scare me like that!" She placed one pale hand on her bosom, as though to steady her heart. Her voice and eyes softened as she looked up into Wabizuke's miserable eyes. "What is it, **_**shatei-kun**_**?" Wabizuke's heart dropped as she uttered the word 'brother'. He didn't notice what calling him that did to her beautiful eyes. They dulled with the pain of masking her feelings. She took his shoulders as she felt his spirit sink, pulling herself close to his body, his beating heart.**

"**My **_**kanbashi, **_**my **_**kyousei, **_**my **_**tattoi.**__**Douzo,**_** forgive me." Her soft words were like a song to Wabizuke's mind. Why was she asking for forgiveness? It wasn't her fault she wasn't in love with him. But why did she call him her sweet, her lovely, her precious? Were these 'brother' words? Wabizuke couldn't know.**


	7. Pretending

It wasn't for days later that Wabizuke saw Kirineko again. She really must be avoiding him. But they met in odd circumstances that day, circumstances that signified fate falling through.

It was raining that day, pouring crystal tears from the heavens. Wabizuke, never one for cheerful moods, was further saddened by the rain and his sudden realization that Kirineko would never love him the way he loved her. He walked along the cooridoor and sighed as he looked out at the world. It was then that he saw a small mass in the middle of the grass, soaked to the bone and sobbing.

It was Kirineko.

Muramasa came to Wabizuke's mind immediately as he ran without a thought to her. The sound of his own footsteps splashing in the grass gave him the energy to keep going, faster and faster, towards her.

"Kirineko!" He yelled softly, his voice only allowing so much, as he knelt toward her. "Kirineko-San, what's the matter?"

"Why 'san'?" Was her only reply as she cried violently in the ever-pouring rain. "Why not 'chan'? Why anything at all, _tattoi _?" She curled closer into herself.

"What are you talking about, Kirineko…s-san…?" He was careful of calling her 'san', but what else could he call her? She thought of him as brother, nothing more. He clenched the grass in his fist.

"My name isn't Kirineko!" She suddenly shouted, a great sob tearing from her body immediately after. She was trembling as she reached one weak, violently shaking hand out towards Wabikzuke's hand, as though she didn't really want to. He immediately took it, and using her hand he pulled her entire body to himself, feeling like a knight the way he held her hand to his shoulder and put his arm across her waist to pull her in. He wrapped his arms around her as he noticed her tail and ears were gone.

"Then what is your name, _kanbashi _?" The tall, thin man asked, putting his head over hers in his best attempt at keeping her away from the sickly pouring water overhead. He called her soft names to sweeten the deal. At this point his confusion wasn't even registering. He only wanted to protect her, and luckily for Kirineko he was tall enough to do it twice.

Finally, she gave in and sobbed into his bare chest, her fists clenched as she cried her heart out. She wouldn't stop, so Wabizuke gathered the broken lump of her up in his arms, and shielding her best he could, he carried her back to the little house the zanpaku-to spirits had been occupying on the edges of the Seireitei. He locked himself in one of the darker, smaller rooms, a place where warmth would build up quickly, and rocked her back and forth as her sobs slowed and, finally, stopped altogether. But still, she clutched his clothes as though she would die if she let go. He whispered softly to her in the best he knew of their native language.

"My _kigai._ My _on'ai, _my _doushi. _My one and only. _Ichirin no aijin." _He imitated what she had said to him, but with different words, and said these things softly, hoping that she wouldn't hear his confession of sincere love over her sniffling. She pretended she didn't hear, but her cheeks became hot and her heart pounded. She buried her head in Wabizuke's thin chest and tried to pretend.


End file.
